Troops’ win marks Butler milestone
NORTH BAY, Ont. – Brett McKenzie scored two goals to pace the North Bay Battalion to a 3-2 victory Sunday night over the undermanned Kingston Frontenacs, providing Stan Butler with an Ontario Hockey League coaching milestone.
Matt MacLeod also scored and goaltender Jake Smith made 27 saves before a crowd of 3,122. The Battalion moved its won-lost-extended record to 21-17-5 for 47 points, second in the Central Division, two points ahead of the idle Barrie Colts, who are up next for the Troops.
Butler earned his 559th OHL coaching victory, assuming sole possession of fifth place on the career list ahead of Dick Todd, longtime bench boss of the Peterborough Petes, who downed the visiting Troops 6-2 Saturday night. Butler has a won-lost-tied record of 559-571-65 with the Oshawa Generals and Battalion, including 15 seasons in Brampton.
“Dick was a great coach,” said Butler. “The guys ahead of me and some of the guys behind me were all great coaches. It’s a team (thing), and a lot of credit goes to the guys you have on your team. They’re the ones who find ways to win games.”
The Battalion, which built a 3-0 lead by early in the second period, was without captain and leading scorer Barclay Goodrow, who left the loss to the Petes with a bruised hip. Butler praised the performance of Smith, pulled at Peterborough after allowing four goals on 12 shots.
“It was a real bounce-back game for Smith. As a goalie, you have to have character. He had a tough outing last night, and when he got back in there he did pretty well.”
Roland McKeown and Spencer Watson scored for the Frontenacs, who have a won-lost-extended log of 24-14-4 for 52 points, second in the East Division. Goaltender Lucas Peressini faced 30 shots.
McKenzie opened the scoring at 8:21 of the first period, stealing the puck from Slater Doggett at the blue line and breaking in on Peressini to beat him with a backhander.
MacLeod, who scored for a fourth straight game, collected his 10th goal of the season at 10:11 when he got loose at the left side of the net. Nick Paul and Zach Bratina had assists.
McKenzie moved behind the defence and deftly swatted a Marcus McIvor feed out of the air and into the net at 2:24 of the middle period. Rookie McKenzie, who has six goals, scored for the first time since a 7-2 road loss to the Guelph Storm on Oct. 25.
The Battalion ran into penalty trouble as Kyle Wood, Jamie Lewis and Brenden Miller all drew slashing minors within a span of 1:26. Smith sprawled to deny Watson and Robert Polesello with the Troops two men short, but defenceman McKeown capitalized at 8:19, arriving at the right post to bury a loose puck.
The third period was a frenetic frame. Polesello hit the crossbar on a clockwise wraparound in the fourth minute, and Paul, Bratina and Mike Amadio tested Peressini on the power play in the sixth.
The Battalion killed consecutive holding and delay-of-game penalties to Riley Bruce, the latter of which should have gone to Dylan Blujus if it was to be called at all, as the puck landed in the penalty box, not the stands. But shortly after the second penalty ended Watson put a rebound under the crossbar at 11:52, setting up a garrison finish in which the Troops held off the Frontenacs.
The Battalion hosts Barrie at 7 p.m. Thursday.
BATTALION BULLETS: Todd amassed 558 victories in two terms with Peterborough, interrupted by five seasons as an assistant with the National Hockey League’s New York Rangers, during the first of which, 1993-94, he earned a Stanley Cup ring. Todd retired in 1998 but returned to coach the Petes for two more seasons, culminating in 2005-06, when he took the club to the OHL title for a third time. He also coached Canada to gold in the World Junior Championship in 1991 at Saskatoon … MacLeod played his 269th game, tying Luke Lynes for third place on the franchise list … Amadio saw the end of a six-game points streak in which he had four goals and five assists for nine points … Kingston dressed 15 skaters, three below the limit. The missing included team-leading scorer Sam Bennett, who has 26 goals and 40 assists for 66 points in 40 games … The Battalion went 0-for-4 on the power play. Kingston was 1-for-7 … Opening line combinations included Amadio centring left winger Ben Thomson and Vincent Praplan on right wing, Paul centring left winger Bratina and right winger MacLeod and McKenzie pivoting Jared Steege on left wing and right winger Alex Henriksson. Lewis centred left winger Connor Jarvis and right winger Mathew Santos … Apart from Goodrow, the Battalion scratched Kyle Locke, Mike Baird and Calvin Gomes … Kingston’s Mack Lemmon turned 19 on Sunday … The Frontenacs’ Henri Ikonen and Mikko Vainonen won gold with Finland at the World Junior Championship … The Troops were 3-1-0 in the teams’ season series.
